From 21-23 September 2015, I was part of The Ryder Alliance team that took part in the international prize of Build New York live 2015. This 48 hour competition challenged multidisciplinary teams to use BIM to design part of the largest private real estate development in the history of the United states and the largest development in New York since Rockefeller Center. The challenging competition called for participants to reimagine the Western edge of the Western Yard site at Hudson yards.

Taking part in this competition gave me a unique experience and brought a number of advantages to myself and the team.

This included:

Realising the full potential of BIM – We used 3D modelling to simulate the construction sequence and to calculate costs, while a virtual reality headset was used to allow the ‘client’ to walk around the proposed building which generated feedback during the design stage.

Understanding all disciplines – The team enabled me to more fully understand how all of the different disciplines interact during the course of a project, working in the same room as the architects, quantity surveyors and contractors helped me understand how various engineering decisions can impact them and vice versa.

Seeing the benefits of BIM throughout the whole design process – Seeing the way BIM can help the various design stages has really made the team appreciate why it is such an important tool for everyone involved.

Developing good relationship with the team – Working on limited sleep and to a very tight deadline can either make or break a team, I am glad to say that we worked well together and had some fun whilst doing it.

I would recommend taking part in this. The lack of sleep and hard work is worth the many things the whole team learned. Check out the video of the competition below to see what we have achieved.